Historic bell, rung when Linn-Mar football scores at home games, restored

MARION — A bell with almost 60 years of history in the Linn-Mar Community School District — restored thanks to alumni and students — rang out anew during Friday night’s homecoming football game.

It has been a decades-long tradition for the 1,300-pound bell to be rung when the Linn-Mar football team scores during a home game. But as the bell fell into disrepair, so did the tradition.

When Linn-Mar’s Class of 1973 came back to tour Linn-Mar High School last year for its 50th anniversary, the former classmates noticed how badly damaged the bell had become — and decided to do something about it.

The Class of 1973 engaged current students, teachers and the Linn-Mar School Foundation to restore the bell and get it back front and center at the Linn-Mar Stadium, 3333 N. 10th St. in Marion.

Shelley Schroeder, executive director of the Linn-Mar School Foundation, led the August 2023 tour of about 80 people for the Class of 1973. “They really took to the stadium and the bell, so much so that they started singing the alma mater. It was a special moment,” she said.

Sally Reck, from the Class of 1973, recalled her time as a student at Linn-Mar. “We didn’t ring the bell very often when we were in high school. We were in a learning, growing, developing state at that time,“ she said of the team.

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When the football team did score, “the cheerleaders would run over” to the bell to ring it, said Janice Zachneyer, Class of 1973, who also has had children and grandchildren attend Linn-Mar schools.

“Maybe one day our grandkids will be ringing the bell when Linn-Mar has a victory,” said Reck, who retired from the district as a librarian at Indian Creek Elementary School in 2015.

Renee Nelson, spokeswoman for the Linn-Mar district, said the history of the bell is largely undocumented. It’s “fact or fable” as stories were passed down over the generations, she said.

While there is a story that at one point in its history the bell was stolen — possibly by a rival high school football team — no one knows when, who or how with it weighing over a half ton.

While the total cost of the bell restoration has not been finalized, more than $1,000 was raised online for the project. The foundation is chipping in another $1,000.

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Students in a metals class at Linn-Mar High worked to take apart the bell and created a support bar and metal stand to securely hold the bell once it was refurbished.

The bell was then sent to a local business — the Powder Shop in Cedar Rapids — to be stripped of years of paint and have a durable powder coating applied to preserve it for future generations.

Sam Biles, 18, is one of the students at Linn-Mar High School who volunteered to help restore the bell. He attended his first high school football game Friday as a senior, helping to unveil the bell.

Biles learned how to take apart the clapper that hangs inside the bell swinging back and forth to make it ring. As he took it apart, he could see that others over the years had attempted to make quick fixes.

“The bolt on the clapper was so rusted, we had to get a blow torch to heat up the bolt so we could spin it,” Biles said. “It was a blast.”

Art students at the high school created new graphics added to the bell with a vinyl decal by Cutting Edge Graphics in Marion. On one side of the bell is one of Linn-Mar’s original logos — an “LM” with paw prints. On the other side of the bell is the modern logo of the Lion head, the school’s mascot.

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Jeremy Brown who graduated from Linn-Mar High in 1996, now teaches the metal class along with woodworking, construction and architecture at the school. He led the students through the restoration process.

Brown said his brother, who played football at Linn-Mar High in the 1990s, fondly remembered rushing to the bell as a team after a big victory. “They would charge down the field after the game and ring it as a team,” Brown said.

Jeremy said his parents live a few blocks away from the high school. When the bell was rung, “you can hear it clearly at their house,” he said.

The bell originally was from the Concord one-room schoolhouse, one of 13 rural Marion Township schools located on the corner of Highway 13 and Highway 151, where the Dupaco Credit Union stands today.

After the schoolhouse was demolished, the bell was preserved on the farm of John and Mary Ketelson, where it remained for years. In 1968, John Ketelson, a founding member of the Linn-Mar Booster Club, and his fellow club members decided to relocate the bell to the former Linn-Mar football field known as Armstrong Field.

The bell remained there until 2011 when the new Linn-Mar Stadium opened. Today the bell is known as the Armstrong Bell, named after a doctor who volunteered as the football team physician in the 1970s.

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